If you’re an entrepreneur or business leader, you probably spend your days juggling a million tasks wondering if you will ever get a break. The duties and responsibilities on your plate are heavy, and to continue your success, you must complete them, even if it takes working around the clock. That’s when you know it’s time to hire a personal assistant.
Hiring a personal assistant to help with day-to-day tasks so your days run smoothly and efficiently is wise for many professionals. Finding the right personal assistant is a must for the position’s success. In this complete guide, we’ll go over finding a personal assistant that is right for you and how to onboard them effectively.
Before taking the first step to finding a personal assistant, there are a few things to do to prepare. Being organized with a clear plan for your personal assistant will help you find the right one for you.
Taking these critical steps ahead of time will ensure the personal assistant you hire understands the expectations and compensation of the role, so there are no surprises that cause issues later on.
You’ll want to determine your budget for a personal assistant to understand if you can afford one full-time or only part-time. Keep in mind that a personal assistant will provide you extra support to free you from time-consuming, mundane, but essential tasks to focus on your core functions and growth.
Once you understand your budget for your personal assistant, you will have a grasp on how many hours a week they will work and how much work you can offload to them. You also want to decide on any benefits or bonuses you will provide to your personal assistant. To attract top talent (and retain them), you’ll need to offer a competitive salary and benefits package.
Before you write up a job description to find a personal assistant, you must understand what they will do for you. Will you want your assistant running errands for you or only sitting at a desk handling administrative tasks?
The best way to write out the duties and responsibilities of your personal assistant is to write out all of the jobs and activities you complete on a daily and weekly basis. Then, think about which ones are time-consuming and repetitive as those are often ones professionals pass on to their assistants.
You’ll want to keep your core functions on your list and ones that are very complex and critical to your success. The goal of your personal assistant is to help you save time and improve your efficiency, so offload work that will help you achieve that. For example, if you spend 30 minutes running to pick up a meal, assign that task to your personal assistant, giving you an extra half hour of productive work.
Here are some common duties and responsibilities of personal assistants:
– Handling email inbox
– Answering phones and acting as a gatekeeper
– Managing calendars
– Scheduling meetings and taking meeting minutes
– Data entry
– Organizing files
– Booking appointments
– Making travel arrangements
– Running errands
– Picking up meals or coffee
Not all personal assistants are created equal, and not all are right for you. Hiring the right one can be a challenge. However, it’s imperative to hire a personal assistant that fits in well with your organization, your work style, and your personality. If not, you will eventually run into problems.
Your personal assistant must be extremely competent and have a personality you get along with since you work so closely with them daily. When vetting candidates, keep your work style and attitude in mind to ensure you choose an assistant that you get along with and supports your work in the way you need.
Pay attention to a candidate’s communication style and demeanor. Are they asking questions that show their genuine interest in the position and how they can best support your work?
It’s more important to be picky when choosing a personal assistant than many other positions. The better fitting your assistant is, the more successful they will be in the role long-term, and the more they will help you increase your success.
To find a personal assistant, you can post ads on the many jobs boards online with a clear job description to help attract competent individuals. You will want to spend some time looking through applicants to omit unqualified ones, then schedule interviews with your top picks.
Here at the Pocketbook Agency, we will do all the legwork to find you an exceptional personal assistant that’s right for you. We have the experience and expertise to know what to look for in the perfect match to make finding a personal assistant a breeze.
– Highly-organized
– Friendly
– Problem-solver
– Excellent communicator
– Advanced skills
A highly-organized personal assistant will make your life so much easier. They will ensure your days run smoothly and nothing falls through the cracks. Your personal assistant often manages your calendar, and keeping it organized helps maximize your time in the office and adds to a healthy work-life balance.
Friendly – The best personal assistants are extremely friendly and get along with everyone. They are experts at working with various personalities and know how to please even the most difficult people. Your personal assistant is often the first contact person to others trying to reach you, so they must represent you well.
The goal of a personal assistant is to help you save time, improve efficiency, and increase productivity. A personal assistant must be an excellent problem-solver to handle the work effectively. Otherwise, they will come to you for every obstacle that comes their way defeating the position’s purpose.
Great personal assistants are excellent communicators and ensure everything gets handled accurately by delivering clear communication. When your assistant learns your communication style, they will know what you want to hear about, which emails to copy you on, and which are a waste of your time.
When going through the process to find a personal assistant that’s right for you, you’ll want to look for candidates with advanced skills that will greatly support your work. They must have used specific software and programs often required for personal assistants to complete their duties successfully. It’s critical to find a personal assistant with these skills.
If you find an individual you see potential in, and your personalities click, but they don’t have all the skills you would like in your assistant, ask if they are willing to take the necessary steps to advance their knowledge.
The right personal assistant for you can easily take a few crash courses to advance their skills to become what you need in an assistant.
Once you find a personal assistant that is right for you, it’s crucial to set them up for success. The onboarding process gives your assistant the knowledge and training needed so they know precisely what’s expected of them and what they should focus their time on to best support their work. Here are a few tips for getting your personal assistant acclimated:
– Give them a synopsis of your job and what success looks like in your position.
– Provide your personal assistant with a long list of their duties and responsibilities.
– Let your assistant know your communication preferences.
– Ensure they have a good working knowledge of any software and tools they will use.
– Introduce them to other staff members, especially ones they will work with.
– Give them an idea of other things they can do to help save you time and best support your work.
– Check in on them often in the first few days or weeks to ensure they get the hang of everything and have a good groove.
– Let them know you are a team, and they can come to you with questions or specific things that are stopping them from producing.
When looking to find a personal assistant, you must choose one that is the right fit for you so it’s a success. The right personal assistant will make your days run smoothly, save you time, and improve efficiency.
You will find yourself having a better work-life balance with the help of your assistant. They will handle some of your workload, especially the time-consuming tasks, so you can focus on your core functions to increase your success.
To find a personal assistant, you can post ads on job boards, weed through applicants, conduct interviews, or just contact Pocketbook Agency, and we’ll find you your perfect match!
Sources:
43-6011 Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants | BLS.gov
Earn a Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification | Microsoft